Snapchat’s first global integrated marketing campaign is about friends

The world thrives through connection. Meaningful bonds between people are often at the heart of great art and storytelling, both behind and in front of the camera. A constant reminder of meaning and true value of friendships is important.

With the goal of really understanding what friendship is all about, all around the world, Snap Inc undertook a massive global study around friendship. The Friendship Report, commissioned in partnership with Protein Agency, polled 10,000 nationally representative people ages 13 to 75 in Australia, France, Germany, India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the U.K. and the U.S. The study explored the impact of culture, age, and technology on friendship.

Based on learnings from the study and to celebrate July 30th - the United Nations’ International Day of Friendship, Snapchat announces the launch of the ‘Real Friends’ campaign - its first ever global integrated marketing campaign. The campaign highlights the spirit of the brand and the product, where true friendship is and always has been at the core. 

As a part of the campaign, Snapchat connected with various friend-duos from 13 countries, each with a unique tale of their friendship journey. The videos capture their honest, intimate idiosyncrasies and unfiltered but relatable dynamics of these diverse sets of friends including a pair who have been lifelong friends, another a long-distance couple, and even one mother-daughter duo. For the first time ever, the friend-duos also shared a collection of their personals Snaps — 1:1 picture and video messages sent to each other on Snapchat.

In India, Snapchat connected with duos, Zara & Prakriti, who have together overcome anxiety, Ronit & Tanisha, who found a judgement-free space with Snapchat to share zany, quirky and intimate moments with each other, and Ruchi & Sanabh, childhood pals, now in their late 20s and use Snapchat to stay connected despite their overwhelming schedules. 

The campaign, through the experience of these duos emphasizes on the core philosophy of Snapchat, which was designed to empower users to be themselves with their real friends. Snap Inc. has also recently unveiled a Friendship Survey that highlighted the evolution of friendship across ages and cultures. 

Interesting finds from the survey indicate that interacting with friends, whether in person or online, also leaves us feeling overwhelmingly positive emotions: “happy,” “loved,” and “supported” are the three most reported globally. Of Gen Z and millennials, 61% believe that video and photos help them to express what they want to say in a way that they can’t with words. Snapchat was founded in 2011 on the belief that talking with photos and videos, with our real friends, was more personal and more fun than texting or keeping up on social media. Since then, the platform has evolved but never deviated from this core mission of helping close friends express themselves and be creative together.

Highlights from the Friendship Report:

• “Honesty” and “authenticity” are the most important qualities of a best friend and “having a large social network to tap into” is of least importance when making friends.
• Globally, Gen Z and millennials are unsurprisingly emphatic in their love for talking with friends online—only 7% and 6% respectively said they don’t enjoy it, compared with 13% of Gen X and 26% of baby boomers.
• Interacting with friends, whether in person or online, also leaves us feeling overwhelmingly positive emotions: “happy,” “loved,” and “supported” are the three most reported globally. 
• Of Gen Z and millennials, 61% believe that video and photos help them to express what they want to say in a way that they can’t with words. 
• We also see that millennials globally come out on top as the most “share happy" of the generations. They’re the least likely to say “I wouldn’t share that” across all categories surveyed and are also more likely to want “as many friends as possible” than any other generation.
• Gen Z doesn’t appear to following in millennials’ footprints though, rather they are seeking intimacy in their friendships, and craving open and honest relationships more than any other generation.

Download the full report here.